Friday, November 17, 2006

Thanksgiving - San Francisco Chronicle

Earlier this month, I got a call from the San Francisco Chronicle to illustrate the cover of their book review section. The book, "A Great and Godly Adventure, The Pilgrims and the Myth of the First Thanksgiving", was about the historical account of the first Thanksgiving. Most of what we believe was "the invention of tradition". The biggest surprise, for me, was that there weren't any turkeys in the region. Most likely the settlers were dining on venison, raccoon and beaver. Yummy!


On Sunday morning, the art director chose my favorite sketch, the one with the Indians on horse back and the child's "turkery hand drawing". On Sunday night I was informed that the Indians did not have horses at that time. This was another big surprise. Here is the final oil painting and design.

2 comments:

Brian Elig said...

It's awesome to see that you got a blog! Sometimes norm websites can be pretty cold and having a blog helps me alleviate that and a whole lot more.
Combining the flat drawing of the turkey with crayons to your oil painting came out great. Looks pretty tough to pull off.
On a somewhat related note, have you heard of David DeVries' Monster Engine site? http://www.themonsterengine.com/art.html

Unknown said...

The best, smartest illustrator I know!